


The Naming of Nod

by isabeau25



Series: Wander Home [7]
Category: Epic (2013)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 19:12:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1399300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isabeau25/pseuds/isabeau25
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Queen Tara thinks a proper name is in order, but Ronin isn't sure he should be the one to give it. <b> This story is included in <i>Babe in the Woods</i></b></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Naming of Nod

**Author's Note:**

> This happens a few weeks after [ Nesting. ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1394557)

The queen had insisted that Ronin bring the boy to their evening debriefings. It wasn’t very efficient, but it was probably good for the child. He tolerated Orla, but the problems with his first nanny, brief though they had been, seemed to have soured him to the entire idea. He was usually cranky by the time Ronin got home, and clingy for the rest of the night.

Ronin had already tried repeatedly to convince Tara that the boy needed to be somewhere else, somewhere with caretakers who could give him consistent attention, but Tara and Glory both thought the transition would be too stressful for him, and they needed to wait until he had had more time to adjust before removing him from the one person he seemed to actually like.

The boy was just happy to have Ronin home earlier most nights, even if it meant they had to leave as soon as they had eaten. He liked Tara, or at the very least he wasn’t afraid of her, and he loved being able to play in her inner chamber. There were plants for him to climb and hide in, and Ronin didn’t worry about him escaping. He had only been with them a few weeks, and the child’s propensity for disappearing had Ronin too nervous to turn him loose outside. He had been hard enough to catch the first time.

“We’re almost done with the lamb’s quarter, and the cranberries are almost ripe and ready for harvest,” Ronin turned in a slow circle, having lost track of the boy again.

“He’s climbing a black-eyed susan,” Tara motioned in the general direction, looking amused.

“I still can’t figure out how he keeps getting up onto the top of my wardrobe,” Ronin grumbled, “Asa said he’d like to hit the cranberries hard, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. The black-caps were good this year, and boggans have been active in the marshes.”

“Keep an eye on the marshes, and we can see where we’re at once the cranberries are ready to harvest,” Tara said, “winter is going to be long this year, I think.”

The queen couldn’t predict the weather any more than the next person, but her connection to the forest gave her a sense of the ebb and flow of the seasons. She was almost always right about those sorts of things.

“Alright,” Ronin nodded, “I’ll let Asa know.”

“Ronin, he’s climbing the vines,” Tara grinned.

They had yet to find something the boy couldn’t climb, or more accurately, the boy had yet to not climb everything he set his eyes on. The vines that grew up the walls of Tara’s inner chamber reached all the way to the opening in the ceiling. Neither of them had any doubt that the child would climb all the way to the top if they let him.

“Chickadee,” Ronin took a step back so he could see where the child was.

The boy stopped climbing and gave him a curious look.

“Get down,” Ronin said firmly, making a down motion with his hand.

The child still hadn’t shown any sign of speaking, but he seemed to be listening when people spoke, and he sometimes understood. He had also started imitating the hand gestures Ronin made when he was trying to make him understand. If nothing else, Ronin was hopeful they would be able to teach the child to communicate with signs.

The boy stayed where he was for a moment, but Ronin was sure he understood what he wanted; he just wasn’t sure he wanted to do it. After a few seconds of hesitation though, he climbed back down and trotted over to Ronin.

“Ronin,” Tara said slowly, “he needs a name.”

“He has a name,” Ronin shook his head, “we just don’t know what it is. Nim says he’s still looking.”

“Yes, but he needs a name until then,” Tara sent the tip of a vine to tickle the boy, making him giggle and dart away from Ronin.

“He already has one,” Ronin insisted, “it will only confuse him to give him a different one.”

“Ronin, he’s starting to answer to chickadee,” Tara pointed out.

At the word, the boy looked up from the vine he had been poking at.

“Oh,” Ronin blinked.

It wasn’t a completely uncommon endearment, and the child acted more like a bird chick than a Jinn sometimes, so it had seemed appropriate. Ronin hadn’t realized how often he had been using it though.

“So what are you going to name him?” Tara asked, her lips quirking into a teasing smile.

“Me?” Ronin gapped at her, “shouldn’t you name him? You’re the queen.”

“What does that have to do with naming people?” Tara laughed, “you know him best, and he likes you best. Choose a name for him.”

“I don’t know…” Ronin started, then realized the child had disappeared again, “where is he?”

“That way,” Tara pointed, “he’s crawling through the asters.”

Ronin went to retrieve him before he found his way to the muddy area near the spring that bubbled up into the queen’s chamber. He would need a bath anyway, but Ronin wasn’t excited by the prospect of scrubbing mud out of the child’s hair again.

He managed to catch him by the ankle and pull him out from under the aster leafs before he could get too far. The boy squirmed and pouted, unhappy with being caught, and Ronin scooped him up, carrying him back to where Tara was waiting.

“You know,” Ronin told the child, “if I knew you would come back, I could let you wander.”

The boy stuck his tongue out at Ronin and tried to wriggle free, but Ronin swung him upside down and carried him the rest of the way hanging by his knees and laughing. When he reached Tara, he swung the child up right again and set him on his feet, catching the back of his shirt to stop him from disappearing again.

“So, I’ll talk to Asa,” Ronin picked up the conversation again.

“We were talking about naming your little chickadee,” Tara said with a knowing smile.

“We were talking about harvest routes,” Ronin said firmly, “and he’s not mine to name.”

The boy tugged on Ronin’s armor and held his arms up. Ronin complied without hesitation, lifting him up to hold on his hip.

“Really?” Tara’s eyes sparkled with laughter, “he seems to think differently.”

Ronin sighed and picked a twig out of the child’s hair. The queen was right. He couldn’t keep calling the boy chickadee. He needed a real name, and there was no telling how long it would take Nim to find who he was in the scrolls.

“What about Nod?” Ronin used his thumb to rub a smudge off the boy’s cheek.

“Our little wanderer,” Tara said thoughtfully, “I think it suits him.”

“What do you think of that Nod?” Ronin asked, bouncing the child.

Nod grinned back at him, arms wrapped around his neck and legs swinging happily.

“I think he likes it,” Tara smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> Nod is Hebrew and means "to wander."


End file.
